BigShinyThing

We’ve said before that last.fm and similar (but not as good) music recommendation sites are the future of music retail. Well it appears that CBS agrees with us – they’ve just forked out £140m for last.fm.

For those who have just joined us, last.fm was founded in the UK five years ago and it now has more than 15 million active users. It allows users to connect with other listeners with similar music tastes, to custom-build their own radio stations and to watch music video-clips. What we love about the site is that it invites music fans to stumble upon new music and new genres (New Weird America anyone?).

Unlike a lot of media groups who seem to be frantically trying to build their social networking sites (a glance at the marketing press shows that it’s the buzzword du jour), CBS has recognised that the best aproach is to buy one ready-made.

The firm’s president and CEO Leslie Moonves told the BBC: “Last.fm is one of the fastest growing online communities out there.” He said Last.fm’s strength in building communities around music and syndicating content was “central to CBS”. He added: “Their demographics also play perfectly to CBS’s goal to attract younger viewers and listeners across our businesses.”

As part of the deal, Last.fm’s managing team will remain in place and the site will maintain its own separate identity. Here’s hoping …

The move will enable viewers to buy and view advertising-free versions of popular primetime TV shows. NBC Universal this morning announced it will launch an on-demand service through satellite operator DirecTV. A few hours later CBS announced a similiar service through Comcast’s digital cable system. The moves follow ABC’s deal with Apple that allows viewers to download commercial-free the network’s prime time viewing for $1.99 onto iTunes for play on an iPod.

Already this story is being reported as the dawning of a new era of ‘ad free TV’ – see Guardian article: “Ad free TV launched in US“.

Story via Advertising Age.